1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a carrying apparatus and a carrying method for an automobile dash module that has various components installed therein. More specifically, the present invention relates to a carrying apparatus and a carrying method for carrying an automobile dash module into an interior of a vehicle through an open door of the vehicle.
2. Background Information
In a conventional vehicle assembly process for automobiles, various components surrounding a dash of the vehicle body, such as air-conditioning unit, ducts, instrument panel, audio unit, and electrical system have been mounted to a vehicle body component by component. In recent years, an alternative method has been adopted wherein various components surrounding a steering member are preassembled to form a module, such that all the components can be installed by carrying and mounting the module into the vehicle interior. Since dash module and components surrounding the dash are well known in the art, the structure and function of the dash module and components surrounding the dash would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art without further explanation herein.
Since the steering member itself has roughly the same length as a traverse dimension of the vehicle interior, the above described module also has a length that is at least as long as the traverse dimension of the vehicle interior. Besides, after mounting various components on the steering member, the module is quite heavy. Therefore, it is difficult to carry the module to its proper mounting position. Consequently, where the vehicle body is transported by a conveyor on a vehicle body manufacturing line, an arm-type assisting apparatus that moves in synchronization with the vehicle body has been utilized to carry and install the module to a prescribed position of the vehicle body.
Laid-Open Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-87476 discloses an apparatus in which an arm is slung from a guide rail. A support portion that holds a module is mounted to a lower end of the arm. Accordingly, the module is carried into the vehicle interior by moving the arm and module along the guide rail.
However, the module is difficult to install since the module is large in size due to various components installed therein. Moreover, the module is also difficult to maneuver since the gap between the module and the door opening tends to be small, especially when the module enters the vehicle interior through the door opening. Therefore, when the module is carried into the vehicle interior in the aforementioned manner, the operator needs to perform a complicated operation to avoid interference between the module and the door opening. The module carrying path becomes particularly complicated in the case of a vehicle body to which doors have already been mounted. In particular, even when a door is fully opened with respect to a vehicle body, a dash module must gradually pivot in a clockwise direction from a diagonal orientation with respect to vehicle body while being transported in the frontward direction of the vehicle. The carrying operation is further complicated by the fact that positions of the vehicle bodies on the conveyor are not always consistent. Consequently, the positional relationship between the vehicle body and the assisting apparatus which moves in synchronization with the conveyor varies.
In view of the above, there exists a need for a carrying apparatus and a carrying method which overcome the above mentioned problems in the prior art. This invention addresses this need in the prior art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.
An object of the present invention is to provide a carrying apparatus with which a module can be carried into a vehicle interior easily even when doors are attached to the vehicle body.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of carrying into a vehicle interior a module easily even when doors are attached to the vehicle body.
In order to achieve the aforesaid objects, the present invention provides a carrying apparatus for carrying an automobile dash module to an interior of a vehicle. The carrying apparatus includes a support portion, a sliding part, and a fixing part. The support portion is configured and adapted to carry the dash module into the interior of the vehicle through a door opening of a vehicle body. The support portion includes a main frame. The main frame extends in a direction that is substantially parallel to a direction of a length of the dash module supported by the support portion. The sliding part is slidably coupled to the main frame to slide in the longitudinal direction of the main frame. The fixing part is coupled to the sliding part and configured to engage a predetermined portion of the vehicle body so that the main frame and the sliding part pivot about an axis oriented in a vertical direction relative to the vehicle body.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses a preferred embodiment of the present invention.